The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1887-11-24
BACON OR SHAkESPEARE7
Continued

| ne IteiuenLcU cOute.iOuSeS, lHdt III
the booksellers shop, during the in
tervals of business, he had access to
books which enable him to study; and
that in the coffee-houses, which were
also freGuented by some of the wits
aud men Of the world Of the day, he
acquired his extraordinary knowledge
OF men and things.
If this training for genius were so
etlicaciouS in his case why has it not
since been found to he sol Why Is
not now the culture of our young
geniuses affected by giving them the
use of Il limited library and society
of club! What need of schools and
| universities, studies and lecture
rooms, daylight abstinences and mid
night oil, if all that innate cleverness
| needs for its most successful develop
ment is access to certain books, varied
by intermittent conversations with
clever men, in their intervals of re-
taxation at club!
Shakespeare gradually rose in his
profession of an actor, but never ac-
CURED eminence in it. He acted in
Iamlet-not the part Of Hamlet, but
the Ghost. lie is described ut this
time by. IN unfortunate dramatist
named Robert Greene, who seemed
TO attribute his own failure to the
successful rivalry of the author, as
being IAN upstart crow, beautiiied
with our feathers, that with his
tigers heart wrapt in players hide
supposes he is as we'll able to bombast
out a blank verse as the best Of you,
and being an absolute Johannes fac
totum, is in his own conceit the only
Shake-scene in countIie.'
In 1895 he is living in Southwark.
In 1898 he has risen to be shares
holder and manager of the Globe and
Blackfriar Theaters, and is rich
enough to buy New Plasce at STRAIT.
ford. We hear of him lending money
and acting, and visiting Stratford
once year.
In 1890 lie obtains grant of a coat.
of-arms from IIeralds College; buys
more land at Stratford.
In 1901 his father who had failed
in business, dies.
In 1908 5 he is in Gourishing condi
ton; still manager of the Globe, in
which he was one Of the largest share
holders. He acts before the court
buys more land at Stratford.
In l60S9 we hear of him as plaintiff
in small actions against his fellow.
townsmen at Stratford for recovery
Of small loans Or malt delivered.
IL the period from 1898 to 1909 the
wonderful plays appear. one or two OF
more, year. The earliest plays are
supposed by some critics to have ap
peared in 1885, about the same time
that Shakespeare left Stratford.
In 1910, when he is in the prime OF
| life, at forty-seven, he retires tc
Stratfordon. Avon, and betakes him
self-to study and lteraturel no.
resumes his old calling as woolstapler
| The Shakespeare Plays now cease
to appear, and this just at the time
one would have thought that Will
Shakespeare had acquired the learn
ing and leisure to write with increas
ed zest.
In 1911 he appears as party to q
lawsuit at Stratford with neighbor
On April 23rd, 1916, Shakespeare
died at Stratford-on-Avon in the
diary of Mr.. Ward, Vicar of Str It
ford, occursithis entry: shakespeare
Drayton and Ben johnson drank toe
hard, for Shakespeare died of fever
thus contracted"
l have omitted reference to q
number of traditional anecdotes, al
of a more or less disreputable charac
ter, as they may not be true; they are
however, based on the same tradi
tional evidence as the rest.
The death Of the reputed author OF
the Plays attracted no contemporary
attention.
Such is the character, career and
exit of the man who, we are asked tt
believe, was the author of the Play:
which are phenomenon, not only ir
English letters. but in human expe
rience, and the like of which the lit
. erature OF no other country has pro
duced.
An authors inner life is usually
manifested in his writings. Is there
any other instance on record of the
life and character of the individual
having been such misit with the
works he is credited as having pro
duceG9 think not.
l have always felt a difficulty
amounting to an inability, to bring
my mindto believe that, except by in
spiration or miracle, man of Shake
speare's education antecedents an(
associations, could have written any
of them, but least of all Macbeth
Hamlet. and Lear.
| Tie plays, sonnets and poems, wher
printed in one volume. occupy upward
of one thousand very closely printed
pages. containing nearly 200 lines t.
each page.
The contents show not merely that
the writer was cultivated man with
wide, yet on the whole aristocratit
sympatlies, and a knowledge Of char
acter, especially in the higher walks
Of life so that he could almost readily